These Fruits and Vegetables Cost More Than You Think
Fruits and vegetables offer starkly different overall value when edible yield is considered.
Fear not, this isn’t an exercise that involves actually measuring the weight of banana peels or trying to assign a percentage to how much of the ends of zucchini you throw out. Even chefs make use of handy yield charts that inform, on average, how much of a given item is usable.
Determining the actual cost of an ingredient, then, involves calculating the new price based on the edible portion. For instance, if a head of cauliflower costs $1.49 per pound, and only 55% of it is usable — once you remove the core and leaves — then the per pound cost increases by almost double for the usable portion. You may have spent about $3 on two pounds of cauliflower, but you’re getting to use only a little over a pound of what you paid for. To determine the actual cost, then, you take the purchase cost and divide by the yield percentage, expressed as a decimal.
For example: $1.49/.55 = $2.70
Next time you load up on bell peppers at the market, consider that you’ll only be consuming about 65% of the total product.
You don’t need to be purchasing in bulk by weight to consider how much of an ingredient you’re actually going to be able to use. Understanding the yield of certain items can help you look at the price tag a little differently, as well as consider how much is headed for the trash.
Here are 12 common items in the grocery store that have the lowest percentages of edible portion, and therefore the highest waste. (Garden peas have the smallest usable portion, at 38%, but lucky for all of us, if you’re actually shelling peas at home, you probably grew them yourself.) Using current prices I collected from Instacart.
|
Cauliflower |
$2.99 each |
55% |
$5.43 each |
|
Asparagus |
$2.99/lb. |
56% |
$5.34/lb. |
|
Broccoli |
$2.99/bunch |
61% |
$4.90/bunch |
|
Fennel bulb |
$2.69 each |
60% |
$4.48 each |
|
Green leaf lettuce |
$1.99/head |
67% |
$2.97/head |
|
Bell peppers |
$1.50 each |
65% |
$2.31 each |
|
Butternut squash |
$3.37 each |
66% |
$5.10 each |
|
Banana |
45 cents each |
67% |
67 cents each |
|
Cantaloupe |
$4.99 each |
50% |
$9.98 each |
|
Pineapple |
$5.99 each |
52% |
$11.52 each |
|
Watermelon |
$6.99 each |
47% |
$14.87 each |
|
Grapefruit |
$2.29 each |
47% |
$4.87 each |
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (while it still exists), food waste accounts for 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. Even if you’re a consummate recycler who always brings your own grocery bags to the store, if you don’t have a way to deal with food waste (a local food waste recycling program, a backyard compost pile, or a countertop food recycling appliance), the produce you buy most often may be contributing to the problem more than how it’s packaged.
Spinach is cheap, good for you and results in very little food waste after preparing.
Fortunately, however, there are many items in the produce aisle that have high percentages of usable portions. If you’re concerned about food waste, now’s the time to increase your consumption of the following:
- Green beans (88% usable)
- Broccoli crowns (95%)
- Button mushrooms (97%)
- Onions (89%)
- Snap peas (85%)
- Rutabaga (85%)
- Baby spinach (92%)
- Zucchini (95%)
- Tomatoes (91%)
- Blueberries (96%)
- Grapes (92%)
- Plums (94%)
- Strawberries (89%)
